Rural women claim arable lands

While the world celebrates the Rural Women Day every 15 October, Burundian rural women demand to be supported.

Rural women engage in farming to feed their families

It’s around 10:00a.m. on Vugizo mountain in Mukaza Commune in the capital Bujumbura. Rural women are busy growing crops. Odette Nzeyimana, 28, must work hard to feed her 5children. “I work in my field every morning and do other small trade like selling avocadoes and banana to complete the harvest”, says Nzeyimana.

She also says she often finds it difficult to make ends meet. “My husband is a bricklayer and it happens that he spends five months without job”, she says adding that he cannot help her with farming activities as he is not used to that.

She says it is not easy to have arable lands. “Even if inputs and selected seeds are often lacking, we could grow various crops to increase the production if we had sufficient arable lands,” she says.
As for N. Hakizimana, a mother of six in her fifties, she says farmers get insufficient harvest when is the rain is not sufficient. “We need more inputs to increase our agriculture production,” she says.
Hakizimana also says rural women lead a difficult life. “Our spouses do not always get jobs to support us,” she says adding that rural women find it difficult to empower themselves without their husbands’ support.

Adidja Akimana, a widow who has one kid, says she must work hard to feed her kid. “My spouse died during the outbreak of the 2015 crisis. Since then, I must work hard and alone to feed my only child,” she says.

Akimana says she does farming activities, engages in small trade and tries to get other jobs to make a living. “I don’t receive any other support from anybody,” she says.

Juvénal Baranyizigiye,a farmer and father of seven children, says rural women need to be supported. “Rural women are often engaged in farming activities which are not enough for their empowerment,” he says adding that men are only engaged in income generating activities.

Martin Nivyabandi, Minister of Human Rights, Gender and Social Affairs says rural women face several challenges including climate change, lack of access to inputs and selected seeds, lack of control over income due to sociocultural stereotypes… “It is an opportunity for rural women to express themselves, share their knowledge as well as experience,” he says.

Minster Nivyabandi calls on different organizations involved in the promotion of women to support them by raising their awareness on their self-empowerment.

This International Day of Rural Women is celebrated under the theme: “Rural women at the heart of action to fight against poverty and hunger”.